Tracks Menu

This page is partially updated. Someone needs to update the Align items to take Clips into account.

Menu

Description

Add New Adds a new audio, label or time track. Timer Record Sets Audacity to make a recording unattended. Stereo To Mono Converts the selected stereo track(s) into the same number of mono tracks. Mix and Render Mixes down the selected track(s) into one track, resampling if necessary to the current project sample rate. Resample Resamples the selected track(s) to your chosen sample rate. Remove Tracks Deletes the selected tracks (including non-audio tracks). Align Tracks... Aligns selected tracks with various points in the track, or with each other. Align And Move Cursor... Aligns selected tracks with various points in the track, then moves selection cursor. These all concern label tracks Add Label at Selection Adds a text label at the selection area or cursor, creating a label track if necessary. Add Label at Playback Position Adds a text label at the current playback position, creating a label track if necessary. Edit Labels Shows a grid-based editor for moving, editing or deleting the labels. Handy for visually impaired users. Sort tracks by... Sorts all the tracks on screen by starting position on the timeline, or by name.

Add New Track...

See Tracks for details of the different kinds of tracks.

Audio Track

This creates a new empty audio track. This command is rarely needed, since importing, recording, and mixing automatically create new tracks as needed. But you can use this to cut or copy data from an existing track and paste it into a blank track.

Stereo Track

Creates a stereo version of the new audio track above. You may need this if you start with a load of mono tracks and want to export a stereo mix.

Label Track

This creates a new Label track, which can be very useful for textual annotation. See the discussion on Label Tracks for more information on how to use label tracks.

Time Track

Creates a special track in the project window that can be used to speed up and slow down the playback of associated audio tracks. This occurs according to the speed percentages that are set in the Set Range (upper and lower) option found in the Time Track dropdown menu (located on the track controls to the left of the track itself). The Time Track affects all other audio tracks in the project.

Stereo to Mono

Converts any selected stereo tracks to mono. (To convert a mono track to stereo, just duplicate it and select "Make Stereo Track" from the top track's pop-up menu. Alternatively, duplicate it and just pan one track to the left and one to the right.)

Mix and Render

This command mixes all of the selected tracks down to a single mono or stereo track and simultaneously applies all real-time transformations for the track, such as gain, panning, or resampling.

ToDo Can you either explain what "Render" is all about - or alternatively drop the "Render" from the Audacity command. I say this as a result of reading a recent thread on the forum precisely about the meaning of "Render" - and no-one has been able to answer this properly. Is the rendering the application of real time transformations that you write about?

The channel of a track being mixed affects whether it will be mixed into the left channel of the resulting track(s), the right channel, or both (mono). For example, if you have four tracks:

• Track 1: left channel
• Track 2: left channel
• Track 3: right channel
• Track 4: mono channel

and you select them all and perform a Mix and Render, you will end up with two tracks: the first will contain a mix of tracks 1, 2, and 4 (the new left channel) and the other will contain a mix of tracks 3 and 4 (the new right channel).

Your tracks are implicitly mixed whenever you hit the Play button on the Control Toolbar and whenever you select Export.

Note that if you try to mix two very loud tracks together, you may get clipping (it will sound like pops, clicks, and noise). To avoid this, you should use the track gain controls to reduce the amplitude of all of your tracks.

Resample...

Allows you to change the sample rate of a track by resampling the audio to that new rate.

Remove Track(s)

This command removes the selected track or tracks from the project. Even if only part of a track is selected, the entire track is removed. You can also delete a track by clicking the X in its upper-left corner. To cut out only part of the audio in a track, use Delete, Split Delete or Silence.

Align...

This needs to be rewritten to take clips into account

"alignzero"

Align with Zero

Aligns the start of any selected tracks to the start of the project.

"aligncursor"

Align with Cursor

Aligns the start of any selected tracks to the cursor position.

"alignselectionstart"

Align with Selection Start

Aligns the start of any selected tracks to the start of the current selection

"alignselectionend"

Align with Selection End

Aligns the start of any selected tracks to the end of the current selection

"alignendcursor"

Align End with Cursor

Aligns the end of any selected tracks to the cursor position.

"alignendselectionstart"

Align End with Selection Start

Aligns the end of any selected tracks to the start of the current selection.

"alignendselectionend"

Align End with Selection End

Aligns the end of any selected tracks to the end of the current selection

"aligntogether"

Align Tracks Together

If you select multiple tracks, this command adjusts their time offset so that they start at the same time. It adjusts their starting time to the average of all of the tracks' original starting times. To adjust the time offset of tracks with complete flexibility, use the Time Shift Tool.

"alignmovecursor"

Align and Move Cursor

These commands work just like the align commands with the move cursor command immediately following it.

Add Label at Selection

This menu item lets you create a new label at the current selection. You can title the label by typing with the keyboard and then hitting "Enter" when you're done. The label saves your current selection - so when you click on the label later it will return the selection to the state it was in when you created the label. See the discussion on Label Tracks for more information on how to use label tracks.

Add Label at Playback Position

Like Add Label at Selection but the label is added at the current position during playback.